With a plethora of boxsets to plow through, and the promise of a few more dazzlingly hot evenings and 10pm sunsets ahead of us, it’s fair to say that, for all the life lessons it’s taught us, Big Brother isn’t at the top of our viewing priorities. And giving people like Danielle McMahon a soapbox from which they can talk nonsense isn’t really helping.
The 25-year-old Playboy model insists that though she’s not homophobic, she doesn’t believe same-sex couples should have the same rights as straight couples. Oh, and that weddings outside the Catholic Church don’t count.
Fellow contestant Kimberly Kisselovich, 23, started the conversation by talking about how she once left church when she found the content of the sermon offensive: ‘I went to church with my sister, close to my house… we have a lot of friends who are gay and we walked in there and they were absolutely slating gay people… they’re in hell and all this sort of stuff and I just walked out. How could someone be so horrible… I find it so crazy.’
But Danielle responded, saying: ‘That’s too much. I don’t agree with that. I’m not in favour of same-sex marriage but I’d never turn around and say, you’re going to hell… God still loves you regardless. I just don’t agree with it in the church of God. The whole thing though is that marriage has to do with the government and it’s a piece of paper… that’s a certificate and they don’t have to be married in the Catholic Church.’
However, she didn’t seem to mean that she supports gay marriage, so long as the ceremony doesn’t happen inside a Catholic church, but that if any wedding happens outside the church, she doesn’t count it as real. ‘The only point I see in marriage is through God in the Catholic Church… or else, to me, it’s not marriage really.’
Odd. What does she think of all the Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists who get married?
On the plus side, the other housemates disagreed with Danielle and were there to have it out with her. One, Marlon, pointed out: ‘I think, if you want to get married, get married to who the hell you want to get married to. It’s as simple as that.’
And later, Kimberly pointed out in a private conversation between her and Marlon: ‘You’re entitled to an opinion, but you shouldn’t have an opinion that excludes other people.’
When Big Brother started way back in 1999, the housemates included Anna Nolan, a lesbian ex-nun who’d left her convent after realising her sexuality. And now? There’s a Playboy model who believes two people who love each other shouldn’t have the same rights as a straight couple who love each other. Progress, eh?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.